When Cartoons Evolved 2- Bugs Bunny prototypes

I'll list the traits I can think of.His most general trait is that he's a heckler.He also is a magician-he can drag his hole around, drop in it and then appear behind the antagonist.Then - he is a specific kind of heckler-mostly calm and cool when in control of the situation-but when he sometimes is not in control, he becomes really irritable and his pride is sorely wounded which just makes him lose even more control.

He is aware that he's the star of the show and confides with the audience about the situation. A ham performer. (Even when he loses!)He's sarcastic.

Bugs Bunny hams it up in Corny Concerto-animated by Rod Scribner

This is a pretty well rounded character for the times-when you consider that most Disney characters had one trait only-a really general one, with no specific quirks: Donald is an Asshole, Goofy's a retard, Happy is - guess...! Sneezy is...and then Hell, their biggest star, Mickey, doesn't even have one trait!

Bugs and his Warner Bros. cohorts were a revolution in cartoon personalities and are still leagues ahead of any other cartoon characters in terms of mere richness of personality alone.

Bugs is a few revolutions in one:The first heckler cartoon I can think of-(if anyone else knows of one before this let me know!) is Porky's Duck Hunt made by Tex Avery in 1937.

Trait 1-Daffy Duck is unfazed by a hunter's gun and dog

This cartoon introduced a prototype Daffy Duck who was also a prototype Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and the myriad of other heckler characters to follow.

Tex Avery loved hunting cartoons-he made a zillion of them. In most of them the befuddled hunter is pitted against many ducks or rabbits of creatures of the wild. In this cartoon Tex' idea was to have Porky outwitted by a flock of ducks. One of his animators, Bob Clampett, suggested they boil it down to 1 duck and make the duck have fun outwitting Porky and be completely unfazed by the threat of the hunter's gun. This gave the animators a chance to spend time seeing what they could do with the new duck character.

(This calm character was inspired by a hunting trip that Rudy Ising once described to the crew at the Looney Tunes factory in the early 30s. He kept acting out scenes of him trying to shoot this rabbit, and the rabbit kept disappearing behind bushes and then sneaking up behind Rudy and completely outwitting him. Clampett and the other cartoonists drew gag cartoons depicting Rudy versus the wacky wabbit.)

Avery's unit tried a couple different takes with the new duck character. Daffy is calm in some of the scenes and he becomes loony at the end of the cartoon in a crazy scene animated by Clampett of the duck spinning and flipping and yelling Woo Woo, Woo Woo!

Clampett's animation of the crazy darnfool duck

The cartoon was a huge hit in theatres and Leon Schlesinger came into Termite Terrace and told the gang that they were really on to something and to make more of those screwball duck cartoons.

Shortly after Daffy's Duck Hunt, Bob Clampett was promoted to director of his own unit and took some of the Termite Terrace animators with him-including a young Chuck Jones. This unit carried on the crazy stuff from Tex' unit and took it even further. It also took the personality stuff a lot further while it was at it.

Avery's style was always sarcasm, parody, wacky gags and high concept story premises. Clampett's cartoons were more varied in theme and concentrated more on the performances of the characters. There were really wacky gags too, but they seem even wackier because the characters were richer and the characters, rather than the the director motivated the gags.

In his first cartoon, Get Rich Quick Porky, Clampett experiments with the calmer type heckler character-this time a gopher who looks and acts a lot like the early 40s Bugs Bunny.

He does magic tricks from halfway out of his own hole.

Clampett himself was a magician and a practical joker, and this gopher seems almost to be an animated caricature of the guy I knew well.

A wiseacre gopher plays practical jokes on a mutt

The gopher does wacky show off spins into his hole

The triumphant spin into the hole became a staple of Bugs' routine later.

He remains calm and sarcastic

More to come...! The first Bugs Bunny cartoon!

A lot of this historical information I got directly from classic animators but another great resource was Mike Barrier's Funnyworld magazine in the 1970s. It was the first magazine and animation history source to really seriously look at cartoons other than Disney's. Mike and his partner Milt Grey interviewed dozens of old time animators and shared much of their new-found knowledge with rabid cartoon fans like me.

83 comments:

You are a genius, Mr. K. You've made sense out of crap I didnt think really had logical sense to it, like the "the characters, rather than the the director motivated the gags." It makes perfect sense now that you mention it...

A question related to your last post:

When you come up with a cartoon idea, how exactly do you go about planning for it? Do you write a loose script, make "thumbnail drawings" or just go ahead and make the big storyboard?

I would think it would be easiest to make a script, then storyboard it, but that isn't the way to go? Do you need the storyboard first in order to get a feel of the cartoon?

Great stuff, John!My wife bought me the new Looney Tunes Boxed set for my birthday and I love yours and Eddies commentaries on their.I love hearing old stories about animation during the termite terrace era and especially enjoyed hearing about what a bunch of practical jokers 'Unit A' was.....It is really cool that you know Bill Melendez, knew Bob Clampett and continue on with the legacy of great animation. Cartoons BY Cartoonists....sounds simple enough.

Don't forget the Falling Hare short with the gremlin that made even Bugs quake with fear. Bug's totally lost his cool in this one and thankfully wasn't wearing pants. Otherwise there might have been something in them.

Another extremely insightful and eye-opening post, John. "Porky's Duck Hunt" was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. The part at the end where Daffy goes all cross-eyed and wacky is absolutely sublime. I used to laugh my little kid butt off whenever I saw it.

But then Tex Avery took all the best aspects of the Daffy Rabbit from those 4 cartoons and then added his own touches to create the character of Bugs Bunny as well as create the basic blueprint for all Bugs toons to follow in A Wild Hare.

A NOTE FOR MARC DECKER: Marc, thanks a million for posting all that great Clampett stuff and for the fascinating comparison of the two Preston Blair books.

I tried to say this as a comment on your blog but was prevented by the "visual verification" window. Instead of the usual wrinkly nonsense word it put up a red X in a white window. Internet Explorer couldn't open it.

One trait of Bugs that isn't as apparent as the one's you listed is that he's extremely lecherous, as are most cartoon males or real life males for that matter. I forgot what the episode is called, but it was about Elmer trying to catch a rabbit to cook for Humphrey Bogart. Bugs eludes Elmer all throughout the episode until finally Humphrey says "Baby will just have to have a burger instead" or something. Then Bugs realizes the whole time a woman wants him so he jumps on her plate. Something like that. I haven't seen the cartoon in over a decade. But the point is he'll drop everything for a woman. Even fake women put a kind of spell on him. And in that Wild Cartoon Kingdom from the early 90's they were trying to tell me Bugs was gay. I never thought so.

As a kid, I never liked the looney tunes characters, in fact, when their hour long show came on saturday mornings, it signaled to me that the cartoons were over for that day. Granted, I didn't really like old mickey cartoons either, still don't, you are so dead on about the personality, he doesnt have one! wtf?? Anyhoo, now whenever I try to remember the cartoons I watched those Saturdays, I can't even remember what most of them were, but I still remember the looney tunes. when I watch them now, I recall seeing them before, except that now get it. BUT, if I watch the other crap now, like the snorks or the wuzzles or whatever the hell I was watching, I can't stand it.

What was my point.... oh yeah, I am so glad that I was directed back towards the old stuff, it is making a huge difference to me.

You know, if I knew Mickey mouse personally, I dont think I would ever want to hang out with him. What a nerd.

Someone should put up some frame grabs of evidence of this evolution in modern cartoons so we can see how much better the characters are now than they were 10 or 15 years ago.

It would be nice to know whether the changes were accidental, or whether some person actually purposely instituted them. -and then to know what the reason was for the vast improvement.

You know something I always wanted to do? Make a Simpsons cartoon with Matt-write it with him-not with a commitee of 400 "writers" and then animate it for real with actual poses, expressions and timing (all in context of character and story) and then let everyone decide whether "crappy on purpose" is an "appropriate" style for anything.

I bet I could do it for a 5th of their budget too and it would look like it cost 20 times more.

If you could find it in your heart to take a quick look at the drawing I posted yesterday on my blog at: http://mrx-goes-to-mars.blogspot.com/, I'd be deeply grateful. My fantasy-of-the-moment would be to see your take on the character.

A NOTE FOR MARC DECKER: Marc, thanks a million for posting all that great Clampett stuff and for the fascinating comparison of the two Preston Blair books.

Hey, no problem Eddie! I'm glad you liked it!

I tried to say this as a comment on your blog but was prevented by the "visual verification" window. Instead of the usual wrinkly nonsense word it put up a red X in a white window. Internet Explorer couldn't open it.

Sorry about that! I hope that's not happening with a lot of other people too. Maybe try another web browser, like Netscape or Opera? And Anonymous's suggestion of opening up a free blogger account and just using it for commenting also might help.

It's kind of unusual to see classic cartoon characters (in this case, Donald, Goofy, Happy, Sneezy, and Mickey), criticized for a problem most MODERN cartoons are criticized for: characters having only one general character trait with no quirks (Billy and Mandy are the worst offenders of this; Billys stupid, Mandys cynical, Peter's stupid, you get the idea)

Howevet, i think most of us here can agree that Carl Barks did a better job with Donald on the subject of character and personality than the theatrical shorts did).

Anyway, this is really interesting, John. i'm looking forward to the next installment

It's kind of unusual to see classic cartoon characters (in this case, Donald, Goofy, Happy, Sneezy, and Mickey), criticized for a problem most MODERN cartoons are criticized for: characters having only one general character trait with no quirks (Billy and Mandy and Family Guy are the worst offenders of this; Billys stupid, Mandys cynical, Peter's stupid, you get the idea)

"The ONLY Looney Tunes episodes I can remember were the later Chuck Jones ones they showed on late Saturday mornings, because I was born in the early '80's."

You got the bottom of the barrel.Chuck Jones' modern shorts were all about cuteness and too much dialogue,he forgot how to make cartoons by then. The only LT cartoons during the late 1980's and early 90's that were funny were the ones by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon.

I know you prefer to talk about old cartoons but I am always curious about what do you think about some modern stuff. You should make at least one post about modern stuff some day, talking about the cartoons you hate and the ones you like (or hate less) nowadays. I know you (more or less) liked Toy Story, but I don't have any indication of your opinion on the other Pixar movies, if you watched them, or 3D animation in general (I am not a bog fan of 3D myself, it's all about making it "real" and I prefer cartoons to be "surreal", though I think Pixar movies are more or less ok).

Another thing I'm interested in, it's your opinion on long animated features in general. I think WB and MGM cartoon shorts are the greatest thing out there too, but what's your fave animated (long)movie?

I know it's a little off-topic, I just kind of thought of it and I posted it before I forgot it.

Incidentally that Simpson experiment would be interesting. I am still a big fan of the show (yeah, it doesn't look amazing, but I don't dislike the way it looks, it's better drawings than most of the other adult cartoons, except yours) and I would really like to see what you would do with the characters.

"Oh, and, um, mr, X, why is Spark Gundersen's scrotal tissue small instead of big? What have you heard?"

Sorry, Randi, maybe I need to do more research on you Norwegians. I guess I just figured since it's pretty cold in Norway most of the time, those bits would necessarily be smaller -- you know, in the interest of minimizing heat loss.

A Wild Hare is pretty much the same cartoon as Elmer's Candid Camera. They replaced the camera with a gun and went back to Porky's Duck Hunt.

Not entirely. In Porky's Duck Hunt, when Daffy is confronted by a gun he acts looney. In A Wild Hare, when Elmer shoves a gun in Bugs' face, Bugs is as calm as though he were drinking tea with someone. This demonstrated more of a controlled lunacy. That's the fundamental difference right there. That's what seperates Bugs Bunny from Daffy Duck as well as from that Daffy Rabbit preceding him.You're right in that Bugs' character was not created "in a flash". Really, Bugs' creation story is one of the most complex in animation history (tied with Elmer Fudd of course). But, pretty much every historian as well as many Termite Terrace veterans agree that A Wild Hare was a huuuuuuuge step in Bugs' development. Not just for the cartoon's elements but also for how phenominally well it did at the box office and it's Oscar nomination. All that signalled the birth of a new character moreso than the other rabbit cartoons ever could.

It's me Jesse.I know you want to make a Simpsons cartoon with Matt G. but I think that you should make a Bugs Bunny or a Daffy Duck cartoon. Doesn't Richard Pursel work at WB? He should talk WB in to letting you make Bugs & Daffy adult rated cartoons for the theater. You could bring back the classic old school WB style to that studio. Heres a couple questions for ya.

1. Whats the name of the Bob Clampett cartoon where Bugs Bunny and a dog are under water?

2. What do you think of the cartoon "Elmers Pet Rabbit" by Chuck Jones?

3. Was Stimpys design influence from the Bob Clampett cartoon called "Gruesome Twosome"?

4. I'm thinking of buying the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol.3 DVD set but I wanna know if you did any commentaries on the other volumes?

Anyone else here ever seen the Bugs Bunny model sheets from Bob Clampett's unit during 1942 and 1943? They're drawn by Robert McKimson, and they're amazing! It's like the Preston Blair book on steroids!

John,it would be epic if you wrote and animated an episode of the Simpsons. I really believe it would open peoples eyes and help them realize how a great cartoon should be produced.

After all, Matt Groening allowed the british dude from "the office" to write and star in an entire episode this season. I bet he would be even more obliged to have you join in as a guest, considering he knows you're skilled at what you do.

maybe he will realize you don't need to spend millions of unnecessary dollars to produce a good cartoon, or use foreign animating teams who don't even really fully understand the show and the story lines.

start pitching him ideas and see what happens-i mean you have worked together before. hit him up!

I just saw the uncensored ending of "Hare Ribbin" on Thad K's blog. "OH MY GOD!" that was friggin hilarious! I really wish that cartoon was on DVD including "Wild Hare" and "Elmers Pet Rabbit". They just don't make cartoon violence like that any more. It sucks that they censored the ending of "Hare Ribbin" on TV. I can't beleave that Bugs puts the gun in the dogs mouth. Why wasn't that cartoon in any of the Loony Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets?Dose any body know in the cartoon "Any Bonds Today" is on any of the Looney Tune DVD sets?

john k said,You know something I always wanted to do? Make a Simpsons cartoon with Matt-write it with him-not with a commitee of 400 "writers" and then animate it for real with actual poses, expressions and timing (all in context of character and story) and then let everyone decide whether "crappy on purpose" is an "appropriate" style for anything.

I bet I could do it for a 5th of their budget too and it would look like it cost 20 times more.

If Mike Gervais from the Office can be allowed to play with The Simpsons for one epiosde, you should have carte blanche, too. I'd run right over to Matt Groening NOW, so you have a shot of getting an episode in the next season.

>>>>Make a Simpsons cartoon with Matt-write it with him-not with a commitee of 400 "writers" and then animate it for real with actual poses, expressions and timing

That'd be the best experiment ever!<<

I had that idea for Spongebob. Get John, Trey Parker & Matt Stone, Seth MacFarlane, Matt Groening, Mike Judge and Genndy Tartavosky to each make their own episode. Make it an animation festival! Release it on TV special like!

>>>>Make a Simpsons cartoon with Matt-write it with him-not with a commitee of 400 "writers" and then animate it for real with actual poses, expressions and timing

That'd be the best experiment ever!<<

I had that idea for Spongebob. Get John, Trey Parker & Matt Stone, Seth MacFarlane, Matt Groening, Mike Judge and Genndy Tartavosky to each make their own episode. Make it an animation festival! Release it on TV special like!

"You know something I always wanted to do? Make a Simpsons cartoon with Matt-write it with him-not with a commitee of 400 "writers" and then animate it for real with actual poses, expressions and timing (all in context of character and story) and then let everyone decide whether "crappy on purpose" is an "appropriate" style for anything."

Dose matt even work on The Simpsons any more or dose he just let team of talentless writers do all the work ?

I think the Simpsons started to decline somewhere in the 4th season. Do remember, in the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge", the sequence where Maggie leads the other babies to get back their pacifiers? That was a helluva lot more cartoony than most of the tripe afterwards!

Hey John, is your argument that nothing today compares to the old Looney Tunes...or that nothing today compares to the cartoons and films of the 1940's and 30's...because I think those are two TOTALLY different arguments! Of course nothing today can compare to the old Looney Tunes cartoons, but that INCLUDES your Ren and Stimpy cartoons as well, and that doesn't mean your stuff isn't AWESOME, because it is and everyone on this site here knows that! But this is the old Looney Tunes your talking about here John. I know we can all learn from those cartoons and what those guys did back then, but to say everything today is terrible because they can't hold up to the Classic Looney Tunes is kind of a rediculous statement, don't you think?

>>mr.x. said:Sorry, Randi, maybe I need to do more research on you Norwegians. I guess I just figured since it's pretty cold in Norway most of the time, those bits would necessarily be smaller -- you know, in the interest of minimizing heat loss.<<

>>Hey John, is your argument that nothing today compares to the old Looney Tunes...or that nothing today compares to the cartoons and films of the 1940's and 30's...because I think those are two TOTALLY different arguments!<<

my argument is that nothing today is as good as anything was in the 30s and 40s because we don't believe in progress anymore.

The modern world is corporate and conservative and stupid and anti-creative.

America used to progress at the fastest rate of any culture in history. Now it goes backwards every year.